Shallow Cuts, Deeper Wounds
by Anne McSommers
Summary: Buffy and Faith end up fighting the newest Big Bad in Sunnydale, but this they don't come through it completely unscathed.


Standard Disclaimer: We down own the Buffyverse, we just mess with it.

Authors' note: This event occurs in Season 3, between the Zeppo and Bad Girls. Meaning? Apocalypse averted once again, and Faith's still NOT a murderer. Also I would like to mention that this is collaboration with Buckwolf, so there is a copy of the story in her account as well. It is not plagiarism.

**Shallow Cuts, Deeper Wounds**

The night was young and the tree leaves were glistening under the moon's light. The breeze was gentle and swept up the fresh smell of rain, which was now only drizzling at this point. Of course, if Faith had time to enjoy it, she would've- well, she would've been at the Bronze partying it out. But the point was, she was sailing half-way across the lawn, which was half a lawn away from Buffy who was now fighting three vampires by herself.

"Ugh, what a bitch." She grunted as she rolled over and quickly checked for dislocated limbs. Once self-confirmed, she hurried back into the crowd, breaking a piece of the wooden fence as she went.

Nothing beat fighting on a private property. Too bad there weren't any pink flamingos standing around, because they were heavier than they looked. Rushing back into the midst of the fight, Faith grabbed one of the vampires off of Buffy and tossed it aside with all her strength. It seemed that tonight that luck was on their side, as Faith saw the vamp disintegrate into dust from the corner of her eye. Apparently she had managed to throw him onto the piece of fencing that she had broken only a moment before.

Now two on two, this wasn't a fair fight. Really the vamps didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. And that was saying something, as they were standing in the middle of a town on the actual mouth of hell. Faith had always found that strange, she had never really thought hell had a mouth until she moved here. The vamp swung a sword inches from her neck, "Damn" Faith said, time to quit thinking and start staking. As the vamp rushed her for second time she ducked his sword at the last second, bringing up her stake and dusting the vampire.

She looked to see if Buffy needed any help, but it looked as if she was holding her own, and there it was vamp three down for the count. "So, what do you think?" asked Buffy, "Continue patrolling, or go home and try to wash the enormous amounts of mud out of our clothing?"

"I dunno, man…" Faith straightened, savoring their small victory against the trio of bloodsuckers. "Being all dirty and pumped… I say look for more asses to bust."

Buffy considered her fellow-slayer for a moment, amused. In a way, Faith was almost the complete opposite of Buffy. However, instead of regarding Faith with a mockingly haughty expression, the blonde spun on her heels and began walking off the grass and stepped onto the streets. Faith rolled her eyes and caught up with her.

"Oh, c'mon! You can't tell me that didn't give you a rush."

Just as Faith was saying it, Buffy felt her lower-back and winced. "I got rushed alright," she pouted, "all the way into the fence."

"The metal side?" Faith looked at her as they strolled down the middle of the street, which was deserted at this hour of the night. They were heading for the Summers' residence.

"Oh yeah." Buffy replied knowingly.

"Ouch." Faith winced for her but added nothing else. They were walking up the steps to Buffy's door.

"Besides, I thought we've established that gestures involving punching, kicking and stabbing demons that are trying to eat us aren't supposed to be fun." Buffy reproached but in a more casual way, while twisting the knob open and tip toeing in

"No, you've established that. I'm having a blast." Faith retorted, shoving her hands in her back pockets and looked around. "Well, I'll just do another round and then call it a night See ya, B." She suddenly said and turned around to hop off the steps she had just climbed.

"Night, Faith."

Behind her, she heard the door close and she walked nonchalantly down the streets, completely unawares that as she passed the houses two blocks down, some of the doors bore long red marks.

The next morning Buffy awoke to the unpleasant combination of her mother yelling, and blaring sirens.

"Sirens" she said out loud, why are there sirens so early in the morning? She got up, her feeble attempt at sleeping in forgotten and headed downstairs to see what was happening. Her mother was making breakfast as usual, orange juice and toast.

"Hey Mom," she said biting into a piece of toast. "You know what's up with the sirens?"

Her mother looked distraught as she answered the question. "A few houses down the street were broken into, and who ever did it killed the owners in the process."

At this bit of news Buffy stopped eating her toast; she had to go check this out before school. She got up downing the last of her orange juice and grabbed her bag. Before she could get to the door she heard her mother call out.

"Where are you going honey? You didn't finish your breakfast."

Buffy continued walking to the door, "I've gotta check out this whole murder thing before school. You know, make sure they aren't surprisingly drained of blood or anything." As Buffy walked out the door the last thing she heard was her mom yelling "Be careful honey."

'Mothers' she thought shaking her head.

She walked up a few blocks and the first thing she noticed was the red marks on the doors, blood? She snuck under the police tape and as she got to the door she recognized the red stuff as spray paint. Why would they spray paint the door? She walked into the house and immediately realized that something was very wrong. The pure volume of expensive electronics in the room, not one single thing missing. It had to be either a really bad thief, or breaking in wasn't really their priority. A couple of guy walked past carrying body bags. "There goes my chance to check out the bodies for now." She muttered under her breath pissed. She looked down at her watch, "SHIT, first period started 10 minutes ago. "

"Ok Willow, here comes the toughest decision you've ever made." Xander said with it uttermost serious tone. "Are you ready for it?"

Willow stared back intensely, her eyes only made green by her red hair. She nodded, not wanting to break concentration by making noise.

"Alright…" Xander said, as if mentally preparing himself, then shook his hands and sleeves and picked up two items, and held them in front of Willow at eye level. It was a Snickers bar and a Reese Bar.

"Do I go with the peanut?" He said, slightly wiggling the Snickers. "Or with the peanut BUTTER?" He transferred the wiggle to the other hand holding the Reeses.

Willow stared and stared, then frowned when she couldn't decide, and let herself lean back onto the couch and onto Oz's comforting arm. "I don't know." She said, defeated. "What do you think Oz?"

"Well, I think it really comes down to what you prefer. The Snickers has the crunchiness, yet it sticks, while the Reeses are more mess-free and still tastes good, but lacks the excitement. I would personally prefer the crunchy."

"I think I like the crunchy better too." Willow added and cuddled up to Oz.

"The wisdom of Oz." Xander heeded the advice and began unwrapping the Snickers bar and took a delightful bite.

"Hey guys, what's happening?" Buffy said as appeared in the lounge and sat herself down beside Xander, dropping her bag on the floor.

Xander continued to chew delightfully while Willow and Oz sat up straighter to talk to the blonde Slayer.

"Deciding chocolates." Willow started, "By the way, I'm sorry you didn't get let into Ms. Denver's class today. I'll lend you my notes for tomorrow."

"Thanks Will. Ms. Denver has been itching to throw me out of class, she just seemed almost too happy to see me late today. "

"Oh, I'm sure she knows you're a hard working student. And that she just needed to set an example for the future tardees. I mean, if I was late, I'm sure I would've received the same type of not-getting-into-class treatment."

Buffy smiled. Though Willow didn't always say highly convincing things, she had to give her kudos for her effort and the fact that she never stopped trying.

"So how was patrolling yesterday?" Oz inquired, just out of the blue.

"Pretty uneventful. Few vamps here and there, but between Faith and I," Buffy paused and glanced at Xander as he choked on his chocolate bar, "they didn't stand a chance. But this morning," Buffy said, lowering her voice leaning in as the others did the same to hear better, "I saw these houses with red marks on their doors."

"Blood?"

"No, paint. The paper said that the house was broken into and the people living there were killed in the process, but nothing in the house was stolen. I think whatever broke into the house was only there to kill."

"Was it vampires?"

"I don't know, I didn't get a chance to see the bodies. I guess I should go tell Giles about it."

"Yeah," agreed Willow "He probably would know if there was any kind of door marking demon or anything like that." Buffy sighed; there goes her Friday night at the Bronze. Secretly Xander was very glad that Buffy was going to tell Giles about it, they were going to end up in the morgue eventually and that place gave him the willies.

Buffy went to the Giles house, only to find it empty, it was 9:30 on a Friday night. Of course Giles was still at the library, the man had no life. She entered the library twenty minutes later; low and behold there was Giles. He looked up as he realized she was there.

"Hello Buffy, have you heard about the murders that happened last night?"

"Yeah, they were like two blocks from my house, the sirens woke me up. Why, are they demony?

"I'm not sure as of yet, but it can't be ruled out. I would like you to check out the house see if anything is odd about the break in, that sort of thing."

"What like red spray paint on the doors, thousands of dollars worth of electronics not taken, and not an single thing looking out of place. That kind of odd?" Buffy smiled when she saw the confused look on Giles face. "I checked it out this morning on my way to school. The bodies were all ready gone, but besides the fact several people were murdered in that house it looked completely normal."

"Spray paint on the door you say, that is odd. Perhaps it was a sign of whomever or whatever did this."

"Or maybe," Buffy said sarcastically "It was meant to say come kill me I live here, all we know for certain is that…" she trailed off when she saw Giles staring at her strangely. "You may be on to something there; the mark may have been left as, well, a marker. We won't know for sure until we check out the bodies."

"Yeah," said Buffy with a large fake smile. "It sounds like we get to go on another fun filled trip the Morgue."

"Yay! Another fun filled trip to the Morgue!" Willow exclaimed, enthused as they walked towards the large square building, in the middle of the night. Both Buffy and Xander stared at her while Oz remained expressionless, as always.

"Will, no offense, but you are the weirdest nerd I know." Xander added as Buffy pulled open a window that led into the Morgue. They climbed in one by one and walked in the darkness, guided only by their flashlights.

"I'll check around for security, you guys go look up the file and find the body." Buffy whispered to them. Xander and Oz nodded seriously while Willow did so excitedly.

Parting with the other three, Buffy crept around the corners, stake at the ready. She walked quietly yet briskly and just she thought she heard a around coming from the corner, she turned and ran face to face into Faith. For a moment, both slayers instinctively jumped back but shortly realize who each other was.

"Faith! You shouldn't creep up on people in Morgues! They have a high likely hood of getting stabbed by Mr. Pointy! Are you okay?"

Faith chuckled at Buffy's rant. That girl seriously needed to loosen up. "Five by five, B." Faith said, tucking her own weapon away. "You looking for the same bodies I'm after?"

"Kinda dead ones, doors marked with red paint?" Buffy asked already knowing the answer. "Yep, those would be the corpses." Buffy turned around intent on continuin her exploration and found Willow was standing inches from her.

"Willow, I could have killed you. What did you find?" Willow was still shaky from the thought of what Buffy could have done. "N, Nothing, there was a file stating that the bodies were brought in this morning. It says that an autopsy was needed, and that there were strange incisions on the body. However before the body could be autopsied it disintegrated."

"Disintegrated?" Buffy and Faith said at the same time. "Apparently they went back and all there was left of the body was its clothing and some strange some clear goo. Unfortunately for us they cleaned up the goo and disposed of the clothing, so we have nothing."

Buffy sighed "I am really starting to get sick of square one. Well at least now we know it definitely isn't your everyday murder. You guys take the news back to Giles; see if he knows of any demons whose victims disintegrate after death. Me and Faith should go on patrol, see if there are any more red doors. If Giles is right then that may be where the demons will show, or at least the next set of dead bodies."

"You guys should be careful." Willow said, nodding.

"Yeah Buff, I mean, you don't know what you're dealing with here." Xander added, coming out of the room that was holding the bodies.

"You guys might need backup." Oz nodded too

"Nah, Faith's got my back. I think we'll be alright." Buffy said, and they all parted ways.

Back at the library, Willow had filled Giles in on what they had found and all were in research-mode. Xander and Giles were going through the shelves looking for relevant books while Willow and Oz were already going through a few leather-bounds. All were already looking very tired, because spray paint wasn't a common thing that demons and monsters use. There was therefore a lot of trouble in finding the source of the problem.

Sighing, the young redheaded witch eased herself in front of the computer and began looking through the articles and pictures she has downloaded from the internet again, hoping to find something, anything.

"Any luck finding any graffiti-happy demons?" Xander said, as he came down the stairs and set another pile onto the table. He sat himself down and began flipping.

"Nope." Was Oz's short reply.

"I don't understand." Willow said, her lips curled up on one side of her cheek as a sign of slight distress while her eyes were transfixed on the screen, "Why use spray paint? And why red? And why… Oh!" Willow quickly jumped out of her chair and grabbed a volume, beginning to flip furiously. "Here! Here it is!" She turned the book towards the other three, who all looked curiously at the pages.

"Of course! Why have I not thought of this before!" Giles said as he stared at the picture of the mark enlisted on the page. It was the same mark that was found on the doors of the houses. Willow looked all beaming and proud. "It's the red mark of Jaen."

"The first month of the year?"

"No! It… it…" Giles suddenly froze as realization dawned upon him.

The other three who were reading about the text in the article suddenly froze too; they must've read through the passage that Giles was thinking about. Everyone stared at one another for a split second, and then they all scrambled to get up and out of the library. They had to find the other two slayers, before it was too late.

Meanwhile Buffy and Faith were wandering around Sunnydale, having no clue at all about what was going to happen to them if they actually found a house that was marked. Buffy watched Faith as they walked to the next house, that girl put way too much effort into her style. I mean trying to be that much of a 'bad girl' had to take some serious time. She didn't really know that much about Faith at all besides the fact that she is a fellow slayer. She knew more about Kendra, and well that wasn't saying much. Faith was almost always in full on fight mode, and when she wasn't it was about sex. Really she was kind of like a cavewoman.

Faith looked back at Buffy who was looking at her with that catty; I disapprove of your lifestyle stare. Sad really, most people don't develop that kind of stick up my ass attitude till they hit like 30. Poor B, doomed to fight instinct till the end of time. She spent so much time on trying to be the good little girl she never had any real fun, never really relished the kill. Faith thought that was probably why slayers worked without the friends, friends kept you from really getting off on the whole death scene. They walked side by side together for a few minutes, and then Buffy walked ahead, she checked out the houses first, and then faith second. After another hour had passed they started getting bored. Even Buffy was hoping that something big and slimy would jump out and try to kill them."

"Gosh darn it," said Willow sounding frustrated. "We are never going to find them, we don't even know what direction they went."

Giles sighed, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt. "Your right, the chances of us actually finding them is about one in a million, but if we don't they are going to go up against something they know nothing about and may just possibly kill them. At least this way they have a chance."

No one spoke after that, but they all walked just a little bit faster.

As Buffy and Faith walked back to the library they continued checking out the houses, Buffy verbally. "White door, white door, oh look…white door, black door, purple door, what were they thinking. White door, White doo…that just mysteriously started glowing red."

Faith smiled. "I'm thinking we should find out what's behind door number one."

"Lets" agreed Buffy. They got all the way up to the door, when they both stopped and looked at each other. "So," asked Faith "Who's gonna open it?"

"Well," Buffy started, "we should come up with a plan. Just in case there's sort of demon behind that door. Like, I could back you up with you kick open the door or we could-"

Too slow! Faith couldn't believe that B was still blabbering on about it when all they needed to decide was who would kick down the door. Without delaying OR listening to Buffy, Faith kicked open the door and began walking in. At that, Buffy stopped and paused, then followed.

"-just barge in and pretend we don't have manners." Buff muttered to herself.

The two girls walked into the house with the newly marked door, and everything seemed quiet… A bit too quiet. For someone whose door had just been broken down by two teenage girls, the inhabitants weren't reacting quite accordingly to- well, they just weren't reacting at all. As a matter of fact, as both Buffy and Faith rounded the corner, they found a couple lying on the living room floor, both looking quite dead.

"We're too late." Buffy said as she crouched down beside the woman and scanned for any visible traces of trauma or injury.

Suddenly a noise resounded from the back of the house, and both slayers jerked their heads in that direction. Both immediately ran to the back of the house, which happened to be the kitchen and they stared in disbelief as they came into view of a half decayed man dressed in very ancient clothes wielding a sword. The man seemed to have noticed them too and growled with fury. They all stood still for a second, for there was a counter between them, and it felt like this was some sort of a stand off.

The decayed man leapt over the counter and made a lunge for the two girls, who split apart just in time to avoid the deadly blade. Buffy ducked out of the way and tried to hit him but missed. Or so she thought. She had to duck again in order to avoid the swing of the sword. Meanwhile, Faith came up to him to deliver a roundhouse kick to the head, sure to not miss. Instead, both slayers stared in shock as her foot went right through the raging man in ancient clothes.

"What the-!" But before Faith got to finish, she was slashed on the arm by the sword and the force of it plus her own attempt at avoiding the hit sent her tumbling off.

Buffy recomposed herself only in time to see the spectral form disappear out the backdoor, the glint of its sword vanish in a distance.

"Ok, whatever that was, I think we need to talk to Giles again." Buffy said, as Faith tried to stop the bleeding on her arm. "But first, we need to check on the bodies. You stay here."

"No problem," Faith winced. She was no sissy, but getting cuts was still a bitch. She began looking through the cupboards to see if there was anything she could use to disinfect the cut. The sword must not have been very sanitary.

Buffy jogged back into the living room, where the bodies were supposed to be. Instead, she found them gone.

"Hey Faith," she yelled. "The bodies are gone; they seem to have disintegrated like the others." She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a Tupperware container from the cupboard. She used it to get a sample of the goo that was left behind. Maybe they could get some info from it. "Come on Faith, we should get back to the library." She continued walking to the door when she realized that Faith hadn't joined her.

Sighing, she went to the bathroom where she assumed that Faith had ended up. She gasped as she took in the sight before her.

"Faith!" she ran the last few steps, to where Faith lay on the ground bleeding. Faith's face had gone pale. "It, it wont stop bleeding, B. I think it is getting worse." Buffy grabbed the towels off the rack beside them and wound them tightly around Faith's arm. She helped her up and they headed back to the library. Hopefully the sample of good Buffy had picked up would be enough to identify the demon if they hadn't already.

They turned a corner and saw the rest of the gang walking up ahead. They immediately began running towards the slayers. "Good, we found you. We have identified the red paint as the mark of Jaen. The blade of the warrior that uses that mark is poisoned, which we believe is causing the disintegration. Under no circumstances should you confront the demon. It may not even be completely corporeal in this plane."

"It isn't." Buffy said interrupting Giles. "Corporeal in this plane, and we figured out it around the same time it slashed Faith's arm open. When it wouldn't stop bleeding, we figured that the blade was poisoned. Now can we skip the lesson, or are we going to just stand around and let Faith bleed to death?" Until then no one had noticed Faith standing behind Buffy. She was paler than she was last time Buffy had checked, her face was covered in a sheen of sweat and the bandage around her arm was now dripping with blood.

"Right now our top priority is getting Faith's wound to close. We need to see if there are any antidotes to the poison. I managed to get a sample of the goo, if there are none we may be able to make one. Now we better hurry, that cut isn't getting any better."

Back at the library, Buffy and Willow cleared the table that was packed with books while Xander and Oz hefted Faith's onto the flat surface. A shirt was quickly shoved under her head for comfort. Giles had quickly gone into the library to dig up more books he would be able to research on. Faith was as pale as ever and shivering like crazy. She was starting to mutter things, which was a sign of slight delirium, usually not a good thing.

"Willow, I need you go get some cold water, and maybe some paper or towel or something." Buffy said, as she felt Faith's forehead burning up with the back of her hand. Willow nodded and obediently ran off. "She's coming down with it fast…" Buffy whispered to herself.

"What can I do?" Xander said, stepping towards Buffy almost too eagerly, as soon as Willow left, but the slayer didn't have enough time to look at him weird.

"I don't know." Buffy said, exasperated. "We really need to find out a lot more about this thing, but it's like we just don't have the time!" Buffy said as she slightly paced back and forth. "Uh, help Giles keep looking, I'll go find this ghost of January or whatever it is."

"We'll come with you," Xander quickly said, preparing to walk with Buffy.

"No, it's too dangerous. I can't risk the rest of you getting slashed by that sword. Just- keep an eye on Faith."

"Be careful." Oz said.

"I will. And I'm not going to try to face him." She quickly added to reassure them. "I'm just going to distract him and borrow his sword." Buffy said, as she was prepared to go. "Oh! And here!" She pulled out the Tupperware with the gross goo from her pocket, tossing it to Oz. "See what you can make of this." Her lips slightly twisted in disgust. "It's kind of what's left of the bodies. There was a lot more when I collected it, so I guess it's vanishing really quickly."

Oz nodded and headed towards Giles' office to collect some tools for sampling while Buffy took off, leaving Xander walking back and forth like a headless chicken. He quickly pulled up a chair beside Faith and held her hand, patting it with his other one. At this point, Faith was probably too weak to react or to know.

Suddenly something occurred to Giles, "Willow start looking for spells that make demons corporeal. If Buffy can fight this thing she has a better chance of getting it's sword without getting hurt. Even better she may be able to kill it, which with most demons causes their magics to stop, and I highly doubt his sword was poisoned with something non-mystical." He finished telling Willow where to look and returned to his search for more information on the demon it's self.

Meanwhile Buffy was once again wondering up ad down the streets of Sunnydale looking for mysterious red doors. She had started out walking but now she was at almost a run. She had to find a red door; she was looking to the side when she suddenly ran into something. She pulled out her stake, jumped up from the ground and found herself looking at Angel. He on the other hand was looking at her very concerned.

"Are you alright, I've never seen you this distracted before?"

Buffy sighed when she heard this. "There's a lot going on right now. How about you help me look for a red glowing door, and I will explain everything on the way."

Angel agreed meanwhile seriously wondering if she had lost it. 'Help me look for a red glowing door', it sounded pretty out there, but they were on a hell mouth, making just about anything possible. Twenty minutes later Angel was up to speed on the situation and very glad he had ran into Buffy. This way she wouldn't be facing this demon alone. Just as this thought crossed his head, he heard Buffy yell "Red Door!"

Back at the library Willow was having no luck finding a spell to make the demon corporeal. Well there were tons of spells, but none that looked like they would work on the demon they were facing this time. Giles on the other hand was having much better luck. The accounts of this 'January' demon as Buffy called him, were vague at best. But they all seemed to say the same thing, the sword holds the power. The power to do what was unknown, but without the sword they had nothing, and Faith was sure to perish.

Ok, well

Buffy and Angel ran up the stairs together and she kicked in the door. When Angel followed her in they exchanged a look, they weren't finding any live owners in this place. As they entered the living room they saw the owners of the house lying on the carpet dead. The man still had a sword sticking out of his chest. Their eyes traveled upward and they saw a hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword. Oh, and there was the January guy. Buffy ran up and grabbed the sword from his hand, and ran away. Both the demon and Angel stood in shock; neither believing Buffy had just done that. Angel reacted first and ran after her, the demon remained standing there a second longer, perplexed.

Back at the library, Faith moaned painfully while Xander dabbed her forehead with a wet towel. Both Willow and Oz were furiously looking through multiple books as Giles ran back and forth bearing volumes.

Suddenly, the library door burst open and in came marching Buffy and Angel, the former walking in, holding the sword and the latter following, slightly confused but still looking broody.

"The power lies in the sword!" Giles said, suddenly rushing out of the library.

"I have the power? Go me." Buffy said, while she set the sword on the front counter.

"Buffy! You're back!" Willow exclaimed, then noticed Angel. "Hi Angel!" Angel nodded back courteously but everyone was all business again.

"So what else did we find out about this January guy?"

"The Ghost of Jaen." Giles emphasized on the name as he read from a book. "Is a ghost that seeks the soul and substance of its victims, and draws upon the power of its sword to perform its evil deeds. Which would explain why the victims' bodies disintegrate into uh,… um… goo after they have been killed. It's strange however… nothing much has been mentioned about these marks on the doors, except for the fact that the same mark is found on its swords."

"Then it might be someone else making those marks. Maybe someone who wanted these specific people to die." Xander said.

"Good idea, Xander, Oz, I want you two out there, looking for whoever or whatever's making these red marks on the door. Maybe some graffiti happy demon or something. Just be extra careful, don't confront it if you're not sure."

The two boys nodded to Buffy and ran out of the library.

"But- what happens to those that didn't die?" Faith suddenly coughed.

"Faith!" Buffy exclaimed and quickly went to see her. She sure wasn't getting any better.

"That's never happened." Willow said quietly, looking up from the text he was reading and her eyebrows had drooped considerably

"I've heard about him. No one's ever survived his attacks." Angel confirmed.

"Ok, did we find any spells that can vanquish this guy?" Buffy asked.

"Nope." Willow said apologetically. "Sorry Buffy."

"If the power comes from the sword, then you might be able to use it to make him corporal. Spirits and ghosts are often linked to their material possessions; it's what keeps them grounded to the living realm." Angel added matter-of-factly.

"Fine. Willow, see if you can do some kind of spell with the sword, making him corporal, or kill him if it's possible."

Willow nodded and went in search of spell books.

"Buffy, even if the ghost is unarmed, there's no telling whether he might still cause any harm."

"Good point, Angel and I will head out and see if we can find this ghost again. And um…" Buffy frowned; what could they do with it if they found it anyway? Tease it and make it angry? Communicate with it with a Ouija board? "Do something that'll distract him. Like sneeze on him or spit on him or something."

Angel's eyebrows raised in curiosity at the comment.

"Those are myths, Buffy. The not true ones."

"Oh." Buffy said, and pouted slightly. "Didn't know those existed. We'll figure something out then." Then she and Angel took off.

Xander and Oz were walking down the street when they suddenly heard a squirting sound and turned their attention to one of the houses. In front was a boy in a black hoody spray painting the red mark of Jaen on the door. Silently, they ran up to him and grabbed him by both sides, causing the boy to gasp in surprise and drop the spray can.

"Well, well, look who's the angry misunderstood little teen." Xander said in a very sardonic manner. "I think we should teach him how not to mark people's houses for killings. What do you think, Oz?"

"Beats proper ethics." Oz simply responded.

"Wait! You don't understand! I'm not marking these houses for killing! I'm trying to warn these people!" Shouted the boy, clearly distressed, and struggled against the other two.

"Say what?" Xander looked at him, confused.

Buffy and Angel were walking down the streets when they saw more houses with the same mark painted on them. Whatever this ghost of Jaen was, it sure didn't need to rest and it sure as hell was really greedy. Not even needing to communicate and knowing what to do, Buffy and Angel ran up the steps to the house as the same pattern from before repeated itself; Buffy kicked the door down rushed in. Angel found himself surprisingly blocked at the door way.

"Buffy!" He called out to her, but it was too late, Buffy had already gone in.

Instead of the dead bodies they found all the other times, Buffy ran into a family sitting at the dinning room having dinner. They all looked at her, shocked and slightly scared. The father had his fork half-raised to his mouth while the mother was filling her children's plates. Buffy was equally as dumbfounded. Buffy quickly broke into a fake stupid blond grin.

"Sorry, I'm uh… interrupting your family dinner because we wanted to check, huh…" She elbowed Angel but only just realized that he wasn't there. Curse him for his silent stealthy lurkiness that never alerted her whether he was there or gone.

"- for gas leaks." She quickly finished. "And uh, well, it seems like," Buffy sniffed dramatically around the room and quickly assumed a really unconvincing professional tone. "uh, ma'am and sir that your house isn't very gasy…" She took a few steps back slowly. "I mean, gas leaky, so I'll just be going now." Buffy was about to leave when she turned back. "Oh, and sorry about the door. You may want to replace the lock. Bye!" She said sympathetically before taking off.

Back on the streets.

"So the family was alive." Buffy stated while she and Angel walked slowly.

"The ghost stopped killing once he lost his sword."

"That's gotta make him cranky."

Then they both stopped dead in their tracks and stared at each other. "But if the ghost needs its sword then it would be after-"

"Willow!" Buffy realized and broke off into a run.

Xander and Oz talked to the boy and he explained his abilities. "I don't know how but I can see the future sort of, and I know when people are going to die. I saw this thing that looked like a ghost, killing these people. I couldn't stop them from dying, but I couldn't do nothing. So I marked the doors with spray paint, I figured if the police thought it was vandalism, they might watch the places."

Xander and Oz exchanged looks, seemed plausible enough. Giles had found some readings that showed that the mark was made by people other than the demon. Maybe there had been people like this boy marking the doors since the demon ghost's creation. They let the kid go and told him to keep up the good work. Really, what else could they do?

Buffy and Angel ran full speed to the library and when they got there they couldn't even begin to believe what they were seeing. Everyone but Faith was completely fine. Giles stopped his researching and looked at her strangely. Buffy explained her whole theory on the Ghost needing its sword, and they finally go it.

Xander looked very disturbed "So, let me get this whole thing straight. You go and piss off a really old ghost by stealing its sword, and then you leave it here. You find out the only way it can kill is with its sword and YOU LEFT US HERE. ALONE. WITH THE ONLY THING IT CAN USE TO KILL US!"

"Yep, that about sums it up. Anybody find anything on how to kill Mr. January, or reverse his goo?"

Giles spoke up "We have found out that if he is killed then his magic will stop working as well. Faith's wound will have to heal naturally but it will no longer continue to grow, so she should be fine. You need to kill him soon Buffy, or else…"

At this point Willow cut in. "Ohhhh, ohhh I think I found something. It's a spell to make ghosts corporeal; you just need a few herbs and a sample of their ectoplasm. Do we have a sample?"

Giles answered for her a moment later. "From what I have read ectoplasm remains on anything that a ghost has touched... Therefore we should get some by swiping the swords hilt." Buffy went and wiped off the handle of the sword with a cloth and then gave the cloth to Willow.

She was sent over to the magic shop after being briefed on what had happened when they were to gone, to go and get some of the materials. She noticed on her way over that there were several more red doors. Apparently that kid had been busy. If this plan didn't work, there would be a lot of houses for sale in Sunnydale.

She was walking into the school when she heard a high pitched scream. Xander must be in trouble. Buffy ran to the library and found the ghost there attacking her friends, apparently someone got his sword back. Buffy grabbed the sword of the table, and then stared at her hand. If she was holding his sword, then he couldn't be. She looked at the sword in his hand and it was like seeing double. Giles hadn't mentioned that he could get another one.

Willow started to cast the spell and the ghost quickly realized what was going on. He ran towards her and ended up cutting Willows arm before Buffy could stop him. Now the clock was ticking. Faith had slayer healing working against the spread of the magical poison, but Willow wouldn't last near as long. Giles said earlier that most people only last about an hour and that with just a small cut.

Giles ran over and picked up the spell continuing where Willow had been cut off, as Xander ran over to Willow to help stem the bleeding till it could be stopped. Buffy continued sword fighting with the ghost, narrowly avoiding the swords blade many times. All the time she hoped that the spell would work and fast. She wouldn't be able to hold him off much longer, and if they failed now they would loose Willow and Faith as well.

Buffy could hardly allow room in her mind right now to understand that Willow was hurt because if she did she would- Oh god, Willow was hurt! If they didn't end this soon, there would be no one left. She would've lost two of her best friends.

"Giles! HURRY!" Buffy said as she threw a chair into the Ghost's sword, causing it to avoid her head.

Giles fumbled with the spells and just as he was about to do the last part, he looked down at the book and cursed: "Blast!"

"What's wrong!" Xander asked frantically as he tended to Willow, all the while trying to keep an eye on Faith, to whom the fight was getting uncomfortably close.

"There are these instructions where… Buffy must perform her part as the sword wielder in order to complete the spell," Giles said as he turned his eyes to the sword fight. "but she can't afford to stop fighting seeing as she is the only one capable of keeping Jaen occupied." He concluded with a frown.

"Ok," Xander swallowed, knowing fully well what he had to do since Giles was the only person left who was able to recite the spell. "So you need a distraction," He said, slowly bracing himself as he rose up to a stand. "One suicidal moron coming up." He said with a nod, which the Watcher reluctantly returned. They had no other choice.

"Buffy!" Giles cried towards her slayer, when she didn't respond, he tried again: "Buffy!"

"I'm a little busy right now, Giles!" She said parrying with the ghost again but failing to do him any damage while she had to dodge and twist and duck the whole time.

"I'm going to read you the instructions to the sword!"

"If you say 'slice,jab and repeat', I can tell you right now that it won't work!" She said, barely getting sliced again but she beat the blade off with her own.

Ignoring her smart mouthing, Giles flipped to the appropriate page: "As I recite this incantation, you have to draw the mark of Jaen on the spirit and imbed the blade in the center of it! Xander, NOW!"

"Hey! You big ugly… thing!" Xander said, suddenly jumping out from behind the ghost, tossing a book through it and hitting its sword. "Yeah! You! You think you're so high and mighty with that sword, huh?" The ghost tried to ignore him but Xander tossed another book at its sword, causing it to become irritated.

"Hey! That was one of my favorites!" Giles shouted at him, while Willow confirmed with a painful moan, but the librarian quickly began reciting the final part of the spell since that was the priority at the moment.

Buffy was slightly confused since the sword wouldn't have any effect on the Ghost, but she started carving the Mark on the Ghost's back very quickly as it turned towards Xander. To her surprise, the mark she carved and the places she had traced with her sword began to glow blue. Finally, Giles had finished the spell and yelled: "NOW!"

With all her might – well, maybe not all of it because as far as she was concerned, the sword would go right through the ghost and hit Xander, BUT – with a well maintained pressure, she shoved the tip of the blade at the center of the mark.

And to everyone's astonishment the sword stayed stuck in the sign and they all watched as the Ghost of Jaen arched his back in pain. It screamed with fury and dropped its sword before disappearing, seemingly to dissolve into thin air. Both swords fell to the floor as Buffy walked towards them to pick them up.

"Yay, two new shiny weapons for me."

Meanwhile, Giles quickly ran over to Xander to snatch away from him the textbook he was about to throw.

The three then turned their attention to the painful groans and moans coming from the two girls, but both Faith and Willow seem to have almost instantly recovered, apart from the momentary fatigue.

"Faith! Will! You're both okay!" Buffy went to hug them.

Just then, Oz burst through the library doors.

"I got a lead on the sword guy; they said he was coming here…" Oz takes in the scene around him. "I missed it all didn't I?"

Willow walks up behind him smiling "Yup, you sure did. I almost died, Faith almost died, the sword guy destroyed the library, I almost died, and did I mention that I almost died?"

"You did, I am sorry I wasn't here. I was just trying to keep you safe, and well that went well."

"That's so sweet, its okay I forgive you. Look, Buffy got new swords."

Buffy leans over to grab them.

"NO" Yells Giles from across the room. "Don't touch those, they may still have some residual magic in them. Without Jaen here to be destroyed there would be no way of stopping the poison."

Willow quickly agrees with Giles "Yeah Buffy, we can't kill the dead." Everyone turns to stare. "We can't kill the dead that we already killed… This ghost thing is too complicated."

"Yeah, I vote for sticking to the regular undead, at least you can kill them. God has anyone else realized how weird we sound."

Willow interrupted before he could continue on his 'we are weird ramble'"I think I am going to head home and catch some sleep, before the next undead thing attacks. Almost dying took a lot out of me." She looked at Oz "Walk me home?"

"Of course, couldn't have you out wandering the streets alone."

Everyone else stayed behind to help Giles clean up the library before Snyder got there in the morning.

At long last it was just Buffy and Angel. "I really gotta head home before Mom realizes I am out."

"Yeah, the sun is rising so…"

"Bye" the two kissed and headed off in their separate directions. Buffy thinking about her and Angel's realtionship, and Angel wondering how he was going to be able to leave her.

The End


End file.
